On Friday, Western Washington University student Carey Rose wrote an article explaining how Christopher J. Monfort had bought his 1980 Datsun 210 – the car Rose repaired and drove in high school.

Seattle Police say Monfort used the car in the Oct. 31 shooting that killed Officer Timothy Brenton and wounded his partner, Britt Sweeney.

Days after the shooting, police circulated a bulletin telling officers to be on the lookout for early ’80s white Datsun and later gave photos to the news media to try to locate the car.

Rose learned of the hunt for his old vehicle when his father e-mailed him a news story about Monfort being shot in a police confrontation. The following day, Seattle investigators revealed photos of the Datsun in their evidence garage and the WWU junior saw that it still had the same license plate from when he sold it to Monfort last year.

Rose, a 2007 Sammamish High School graduate, got the Datsun as a gift. His former girlfriend’s father salvaged the car from a Tacoma field and transferred it into Rose’s father’s name.

“We did the brakes, we did the clutch, we did the fuel line,” the Western junior recalled of working with his girlfriend’s father. “I worked on that car for countless hours with his help.”

Last year, he posted the car for sale in an online ad. Monfort responded, and the two met one summer day at Newport High School.

Monfort was looking for a car with good gas mileage, and the Datsun fit that, Rose said. The next day, Monfort came to Rose’s home and bartered over the price before paying $900 cash.

Sitting in the kitchen, Rose said Monfort noticed his drum set and said they should jam sometime.

“He was 90 percent normal,” Rose said. “I didn’t start to get weirded out until a month after the transaction.”

Monfort complained that a drive from Bellevue to Tukwila – where he allegedly pulled a gun and was shot by police this month – showed that the gas mileage was 20 miles per gallon, not the 27 Rose had advertised.

The suspected killer was direct, and kept sending messages for weeks. Questions shifted from mileage to music, with Monfort – 21 years older than Rose – wanting to see when they could jam.

Monfort, who played electric guitar, once called saying he was in Rose’s neighborhood and asked if he was home.

“I wasn’t home, but even if I was, I wouldn’t have said so,” Rose recalled. “The guy was a little different.”

A clip of Rose talking about the car and about Monfort, who has not been convicted in the police attack, is below. Click here to read Rose’s full account from The Western Front.

Carey Rose’s former Datsun, at left, is shown in this Seattle Police patrol car footage 20 minutes before the fatal Oct. 31 shooting of Officer Timothy Brenton. The image, taken from Brenton’s patrol car, was taken during his final traffic stop in the 300 block of Martin Luther King Jr Way. (Seattle Police Department photo)